BBC in transparency row over refusal to answer more than a third of FOI requests by using specialised excuse

The BBC has been plunged into a transparency row after data revealed it refuses to answer more than a third of the Freedom of Information requests it receives by relying on a specialised excuse, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The public service broadcaster, which charges households a £145.50 licence fee every year, has been criticised after data showed it failed to fully respond to 3,110 requests out of a possible 9,076 between September 2011 and March this year.

It told those who had their requests refused that it did not have to release the information as it was held for the “purposes of journalism, art or literature” - a clause that only a handful of organisations can use. In December 2011, more than half of all requests were rejected using this clause.

The BBC want all the security of being funded by the taxpayer but all the privileges of being treated like a private sector businessAndrew Bridgen

Questions about the clothing allowance given to presenters and forecasters, the cost of Radio 1’s Big Weekend and how many Twitter accounts the corporation uses were also refused.

One MP told The Daily Telegraph, which obtained the data through a FOI request, the BBC’s lack of transparency was unacceptable as he called for the corporation to be held accountable.

Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said: “The BBC want all the security of being funded by the taxpayer but all the privileges of being treated like a private sector business.

“There is no other area of public sector spending where there is the lack of transparency that there is at the BBC.

“Because of their funding mechanism, which is effectively a TV poll tax backed up by criminality, the BBC has huge power without being held accountable. I'm hoping the new charter renewal will offer the licence fee paying public more accountability."

Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said the clause was initially brought in to protect journalistic freedom but was now being used in an “extraordinarily broad” sense to cover anything to do with programme making or costs.

He said: “It’s being used to protect anything even vaguely in connection with the BBC’s commercial interests.

“This provision doesn’t take into account any public interest or harm or weighting of the significance [of the request] and therefore hits a very high proportion of all requests anybody makes.”

It’s being used to protect anything even vaguely in connection with the BBC’s commercial interestsMaurice Frankel

He added: “There is no good reason to withhold the information. It is just frustrating and surprising for a lot of requesters.”

The FOI Act allows any person in Britain to request information from public bodies. It also sets out exemptions and states that information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output does not have to be released.

A letter sent by the BBC in response to one request stated: “The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature’.

“The BBC is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you and will not be doing so on this occasion.

“Maintaining our editorial independence is a crucial factor in enabling the media to fulfill this function.”

A BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is committed to openness and transparency and voluntarily discloses a wide range of information, including in response to hundreds of requests deemed out of scope of the Act due to the derogation afforded to the BBC and other public service broadcasters.

“However many requests relate to our programmes or our journalism and the law affords us that creative freedom to deliver the best possible content.”